Second Chance at Forever | C. Cullen

013

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Good Morning

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-Abigail-

To her surprise, the sun was shining through the window when she woke up. She perked up a little, silencing the alarm on her phone and padding over to peak outside at the sun. It had been sunny once back in August after she had just moved back, but it was never sunny in Washington in January. She was surprised there was no snow on the ground, but she supposed it would be coming soon. The sun was just there to tease them. But she would take advantage of it, especially since she would be calling out of work. She felt like such a rebel.

The call was quickly made as she was a pro at faking sick; she did it all the time in high school, and as a nurse, knew just what to say. Mackenzie was the one who had answered and marked her down to let Dr. Jones know.

"Must be something going around," Mackenzie commented. "Dr. Cullen is out sick as well." Abigail froze and her heart began to jackhammer behind her ribs. She hadn't expected that. She figured she would be spending the day with the others and would head home around the time Carlisle got home from work, but it seemed that instead she would be forced to deal with her confusing and intense emotions about the man while trying to have fun with his kids. Wonderful.

"Must be," she said evasively and bid her goodbye before hanging up. Her mind whirled through the possibilities, of how she was supposed to get through an entire day in Carlisle's presence without messing something up. She already felt her heart pounding and flipping around, enough so that she didn't hear the knock on the door until the door swung open slightly and Alice peaked in. She looked worried until she saw Abigail standing there and she brightened.

"Abi, you're awake!" She bounded over and quickly pulled her into a hug, pulling back to look at her. "Are you okay?"

Abigail quickly nodded, smiling. "I'm good. Still waking up."

Alice didn't look like she believed her, but continued to smile. "Well, wake up faster. There are clothes there," She pointed to the closet, "and you can shower. Breakfast will be ready once you're done!" And with that she danced from the room, shutting the door behind her. Abigail sighed and moved quickly to the door that lead to the bathroom.

The shower felt amazing over her muscles, relaxing her enough that she felt she could pull this day off without a hitch. Being so close to him would surely hurt, knowing he would never care for her, but she found that it was getting easier. Well, not easier per-se, but rather she was able to ignore it. She had always been a pro at hiding her feelings, and now it was more essential than ever before. All of her anger at them had been lifted off her chest during her tantrum—which she was ever so grateful nobody brought that up as she was still highly embarrassed—and she was left with resolve. She forgave them for that week of being ignored—even though she still wanted to know why—and all she wanted to do was embrace this budding friendship while she had the chance to do so. She wasn't an idiot, she knew there was a high chance it could happen again and she would be hurt, but she wasn't strong enough to be the one to stay away.

She realized she was in a daze as she finished up and quickly dried off, padding into the large walk-in closet that held the clothes Alice spoke of. One outfit cost more than a month's salary for her and she didn't even want to touch it let alone wear it. But she couldn't exactly walk around with a towel on or excuse herself back to her house to get her cheap jeans and t-shirt. Finally she settled on something that didn't look too extremely expensive: soft white denim jeans, a cream colored cashmere sweater with a white camisole underneath, and a pair of black flats. She brushed her hair out and pulled it back into a braid to keep it out of her face, and then headed downstairs to the great room. Everybody was already awake and dressed, a few of them around the coffee table and the couch, while Alice, Emmett, and Carlisle sat at the kitchen table.